Tag Archives: Coronavirus

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Back on the road

The U.S. auto industry is slowly returning to life with assembly plants scheduled to reopen on Monday and suppliers gearing up in support as the sector that employs nearly 1 million people seeks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) all have been preparing for weeks to reopen their North American factories in a push to restart work in an industry that accounts for about 6% of U.S. economic activity.

The reopening will be a closely watched test of whether workers across a range of industries can return to factories in large numbers without a resurgence of infections.

Hitting new lows

Japan’s economy became the world’s largest to slip into recession after the pandemic, first-quarter data showed on Monday, putting the nation on course for what could be its deepest post-war slump.

The GDP numbers underlined the broadening impact of the outbreak, with exports plunging the most since the devastating March 2011 earthquake as global lockdowns and supply chain disruptions hit shipments of Japanese goods.

But analysts warn of an even bleaker picture for the current quarter as consumption crumbled after the government in April requested citizens to stay home and businesses to close.

China on alert for new wave

While much of the rest of the world is experimenting with easing restrictions, one Chinese province is back in a partial lockdown after a spate of infections.

Jilin in the northeast reported two more confirmed cases over the weekend to take its total number of new infections to 33 since the first case of the current wave was reported on May 7. Separately, the financial hub of Shanghai reported one new locally transmitted case for May 17, its first since late March.

Pop-up carparks

Australia’s most populous state New South Wales encouraged its residents to avoid peak-hour public transport as it began its first full week of loosened lockdown measures, which saw people heading back to offices.

To help with maintaining social distancing, extra bicycle lanes and pop-up car parking lots will be made available, officials said.

“We normally encourage people to catch public transport but given the constraints in the peak…, we want people to consider different ways to get to work,” state premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

Furloughs no cure-all

Temporary unemployment schemes have spread far wider and faster than during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, but are not likely to save jobs in sectors which face a tougher recovery post-pandemic, such as leisure and tourism.

These schemes, which typically provide at least 80% of pay for workers for whom there is no work now, mean companies do not face firing and potential re-hiring costs. Workers are more inclined to keep spending and so help prop up the economy.

“If it’s more than a year, you need other solutions and will need other policies like retraining,” said Gregory Claeys, senior fellow at economic think-tank Bruegel. “It’s good in a lockdown, but if there is more social change, you need alternatives.”

(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Mark John; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

What did eight weeks and $3 trillion buy the U.S. in the fight against coronavirus?

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Unemployment checks are flowing, $490 billion has been shipped to small businesses, and the U.S. Federal Reserve has put about $2.5 trillion and counting behind domestic and global markets.

Fears of overwhelmed hospitals and millions of U.S. deaths from the new coronavirus have diminished, if not disappeared.

Yet two months into the United States’ fight against the most severe pandemic to arise in the age of globalization, neither the health nor the economic war has been won. Many analysts fear the country has at best fought back worst-case outcomes.

For every community where case loads are declining, other hotspots arise and fester; for states like Wisconsin where bars are open and crowded, there are others such as Maryland that remain under strict limits.

There is no universal, uniform testing plan to reveal what is happening to public health in any of those communities.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 people a day continue to die from the COVID-19 disease in the United States, and between 20,000 and 25,000 are identified as infected.

If there is consensus on any point, it is that the struggle toward normal social and economic life will take much more time, effort and money than at first thought. The risks of a years-long economic Depression have risen; fact-driven officials have become increasingly sober in their outlook, and the coming weeks and coming set of choices have emerged as critical to the future.

Faced with two distinct paths – a cavalier acceptance of the mass deaths that would be needed for “herd immunity” or the truly strict lockdown needed to extinguish the virus – “we are not on either route,” Harvard University economist James Stock, among the first to model the health and economic tradeoffs the country faces, said last week.

That means no clear end in sight to the economic and health pain.

“I am really concerned we are just going to hang out. We will have reopened across the board, not in a smart way … and we will have months and months of 15% or 20% unemployment,” Stock said. “It is hard to state how damaging that will be.”

TAKING STOCK

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed chair Jerome Powell will appear via a remote internet feed before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday to provide the first quarterly update on the implementation of the CARES Act, which along with a follow-up bill formed the signature $2.9 trillion legislative response to the pandemic. (See a graphic  of the full stimulus.)

They will likely face detailed questions about their efforts after a rocky few months. The Paycheck Protection Program, in particular, was originally overwhelmed with applicants and criticized for hundreds of loans doled out to publicly traded companies.

Yet, now two months in, a replenished program still has $120 billion in funding available – money on the table that analysts at TD Securities suggest people have refused to pick up because of confusion about the terms.

The hearing is also likely to be a platform for Democrats to coax Mnuchin and Powell toward acknowledging that more must be done – Powell said so directly in an appearance last week – and for Republicans arguing against quick new action.

DEATH PROJECTIONS DOWN, TESTING UP

The lockdowns and money have had an impact on the disease’s spread, as the postponement of sporting events and other mass gatherings, and restaurant and store closings curbed the spread of a virus that some early estimates saw killing as many as 2 million Americans.

Deaths as of Saturday stood at around 87,000 and are expected to pass 135,000 by early August. (Graphic )

After federal government missteps and delays, testing has ramped up to 1.5 to 2 million tests a day, still less than half what health experts say the country needs. (Graphic )

Strict lockdowns slowed the rate of infection in the hardest-hit areas, “flattening the curve” so hospitals could retrain nurses, cobble together donations of personal protective equipment such masks, gloves and gowns, and were spared from the direst predictions about intensive care shortages.

However, the fight against the coronavirus may still be in its initial stages in more than a dozen U.S. states, where case numbers continue to rise. (Graphic )

And community agencies are noting increases in cases of domestic violence and suicide attempts after weeks of home confinement.

TRILLIONS MORE SPENDING AHEAD?

At its passage in late March the CARES Act was regarded as a major and perhaps sufficient prop to get the U.S. economy through a dilemma.

Fighting the spread of the virus came with a massive economic hit as stores closed, transportation networks scaled back, and tens of millions of people lost jobs or revenue at their businesses. (See a graphic of the economic fallout.)

Facing a decline not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the main goal of the bill was to replace that lost income with checks to individuals and loans to small businesses that are designed to be forgiven.

JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli estimated recently that the loans and transfer payments under the act turned what would have been an annualized blow to income of nearly 60% from April through June into an annualized decline of 15% – sharp, but far more manageable.

GDP in the second quarter, however, will drop 40% on an annualized basis. The budget deficit this fiscal year is expected to nearly quadruple to $3.7 trillion.

Some of the deadlines in the CARES Act are approaching. The small business loans were meant to cover eight weeks of payroll, a period that has already lapsed for companies that closed in mid-March when President Trump issued a national emergency declaration. The enhanced $600 per week unemployment benefit expires at the end of July.

The House on Friday passed a new $3 trillion CARES Act to replenish some funding, but it is unclear whether the Republican-led Senate will take it up.

Weeks after a V-shaped economic recovery was predicted in March, most economists and health officials have a darker message.

“It is quite possible this thing will stay at however many deaths it is a day indefinitely, just wobbling up and down a little bit as epidemics move to different places around the country,” said economist and Princeton University professor Angus Deaton.

“The sort of social distancing we are prepared to put up with is not going to do very much.”

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Heather Timmons and Daniel Wallis)

Special Report: ‘Death Sentence’ – the hidden coronavirus toll in U.S. jails and prisons

By Peter Eisler, Linda So, Ned Parker and Brad Heath

(Reuters) – When COVID-19 began tearing through Detroit’s county jail system in March, authorities had no diagnostic tests to gauge its spread. But the toll became clear as deaths mounted. First, one of the sheriff’s jail commanders died; then, a deputy in a medical unit.

“Working in the Wayne County Jail has now become a DEATH sentence!” the head of the deputy sheriffs’ union, Randall Crawford, wrote on Facebook as the losses mounted.

By mid-April, the jail system’s medical director and one of its doctors also had died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The virus was everywhere, but jail officials had little sense of who was infected and spreading it.

Testing of inmates and staff – needed to determine who should be quarantined to slow transmission – was just getting started. In the weeks since, more than 200 staff and inmates have tested positive.

COVID-19 has spread rapidly behind bars in Detroit and across the nation, according to an analysis of data gathered by Reuters from 20 county jail systems, 10 state prison systems and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which runs federal penitentiaries.

But scant testing and inconsistent reporting from state and local authorities have frustrated efforts to track or contain its spread, particularly in local jails. And figures compiled by the U.S. government appear to undercount the number of infections dramatically in correctional settings, Reuters found.

In a May 6 report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 54 state and territorial health departments for data on confirmed COVID-19 infections in all correctional facilities – local jails, state prisons and federal prisons and detention centers. Thirty-seven of those agencies provided data between April 22-28, reporting just under 5,000 inmate cases.

Reuters documented well over three times the CDC’s tally of COVID-19 infections – about 17,300 – in its far more modest survey of local, state and federal corrections facilities conducted about two weeks later. The Reuters survey encompassed jails and prisons holding only 13% of the more than 2 million people behind bars nationwide. Among state prisons doing mass testing of all inmates, Reuters found, some are seeing infection rates up to 65%.

The CDC tally “is dramatically low,” said Aaron Littman, a teaching fellow specializing in prison law and policy at the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. “We don’t have a particularly good handle” on COVID-19 infections in many correctional and detention facilities, “and in some places we have no handle at all.”

Problems with unreliable data aren’t unique to corrections. Epidemiologists say the incidence of COVID-19 in the general U.S. population also is unclear due to limited testing, especially in the pandemic’s early days. And the CDC acknowledged in its report that its infection count for jails and prisons was similarly hampered by spotty data and “not representative” of the disease’s true prevalence in those facilities.

But uneven testing for COVID-19 in correctional settings and erratic reporting of confirmed cases have profound implications for health officials and policymakers tracking its spread because epidemiologists see jails and prisons as key pathways of transmission.

EVIDENCE OF “A CRISIS”

The United States has more people behind bars than any other nation, a total incarcerated population of more than 2.2 million as of 2018, including nearly 1.5 million in state and federal prisons and just under 740,000 in local jails, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Jails generally keep inmates for short stays: arrestees awaiting trial or people serving short sentences. The churn of these inmates raises the risk of infections among both the inmates themselves and jail staff, who can carry the virus to and from the community.

Prisons, which hold convicted criminals on longer sentences, also are fertile ground for the virus. While inmates come and go far less frequently, the pathogen can be carried in from the community by a single contagious staffer, spread quickly in crowded cell blocks, and be re-introduced to the community by other, newly infected workers.

Reuters collected data from 37 state prison facilities across the country that have done mass testing for COVID-19 among all inmates, including those with no symptoms, and found more than 10,000 confirmed cases among the 44,000 tested. There were 91 deaths from the disease at those facilities, which span 10 states.

In contrast, federal prisons, which typically limit testing to inmates with obvious symptoms, reported confirmed infections in fewer than 4,200 of their total inmate population of about 150,000, with 52 deaths.

The situation in the nation’s 2,800 local jails is even more opaque. Many don’t report their COVID-19 cases publicly, and there is no national tracking of their infection numbers.

Reuters surveyed the 20 U.S. counties with the largest jails, holding an average total of about 73,000 inmates, and found nearly 2,700 confirmed COVID-19 cases – a figure that has risen nearly 30-fold over the past six weeks. While some of that increase is a result of increased testing during that time, it still reflects an almost certain undercount, because testing remains limited in many of those facilities.

The surge in jail infections comes amid a chorus of concerns from judges, oversight agencies, corrections officers, defense lawyers and civil rights groups that most local lockups are ill-equipped to control the virus, which has killed at least 310,600 people worldwide. Unlike state and federal prisons, typically equipped to provide health care for long-term inmates, jails often have little medical capacity.

In health care, jail inmates “are the last and the least and the lost,” said Dr. Thomas Pangburn, chief medical officer for Wellpath LLC, the medical contractor in Wayne County’s jails and hundreds of others nationwide. Many jails have been overlooked in the race to secure COVID-19 test kits and medical supplies for hospitals and nursing homes, he said, but “we have the most vulnerable population in a very confined space meant for correctional housing – and not for medical care.”

In many jails and prisons, the toll of COVID-19 on corrections officers and other staff approaches that of inmates – and here, too, the numbers reported to the CDC by state and local authorities appear to be a vast undercount.

The CDC report documented nearly 2,800 COVID-19 cases among staff across all U.S. correctional facilities. But Reuters found more than 80% of that number – upwards of 2,300 infected jail and prison workers – in its far less comprehensive survey of just the federal prison system, a few dozen state prisons and the 20 counties with the biggest local jails.

In an effort to curb infection rates, many jails and prisons are releasing inmates to create more distance among those remaining behind bars. That has raised concerns about whether inmates, particularly in jails, are being screened for COVID-19 before returning to the community, where many can’t get medical care.

More than 37,000 state and federal prisoners have been released since March 31, according to U.S. government data and records collected from 41 state prison systems by the Vera Institute of Justice, a research group that seeks to reduce incarcerated populations. There is no national tracking of local jail releases, but in just the 20 counties surveyed by Reuters, at least 14,000 jail inmates have been let go.

Releasing inmates is critical “both in jails and surrounding communities, because of the role jails serve as vectors” for spreading the virus, said Udi Ofer, justice division director at the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed dozens of “decarceration” suits and legal petitions. “It’s a crisis.”

Some groups have pushed back. Victims’ rights group Marsy’s Law, named after the murdered sister of billionaire Henry Nicholas, has criticized the releases, expressing concern that crime victims aren’t always notified when inmates are let out.

NO TESTS, NO PROTECTION

U.S. President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency on March 13. By that time, officials in the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office already were scrambling to address a looming outbreak in their three jails.

Days earlier, Sheriff Benny Napoleon and Chief Robert Dunlap, the jails supervisor, had laid plans to keep inmates more separated, cut public visits and quarantine new arrivals – rules that took effect just after Trump’s announcement. On March 19, the jail also began releasing low-level offenders, for the most part inmates with risky medical conditions.

Staff and inmates were already falling ill across the jail system, which typically houses a population of about 1,400. Donafay Collins, 63, a jail commander, was hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection that would kill him less than two weeks later – the first death among the four staffers claimed by the virus.

“It’s like a bad dream,” Chief Dunlap said in an interview with Reuters.

Meanwhile, getting diagnostic tests and protective equipment to track and manage the virus proved challenging, Dunlap said. Suppliers had little to offer, and just about everything they had was going to hospitals and emergency medical services.

Hunting for face masks, the sheriff’s office turned to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who had been pressing the federal government to give states more supplies from federal stockpiles. On March 20, state officials sent the sheriff 7,500 N-95 masks provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The highly protective masks are used by staff handling sick inmates, Dunlap said. Basic surgical masks became available later for more routine use by both staff and inmates, he added.

Getting test kits proved even harder. As COVID-19 raced through Wayne County’s jails in March, corrections officers needing tests had to visit a local testing center or hospital, where they often were refused if they did not show specific symptoms, Dunlap said. It wasn’t until April 6 – the day the virus killed the jails’ medical director, Dr. Angelo Patsalis – that officers began getting regular tests through the Wayne State University Physician Group.

Getting the tests was “a matter of life and death,” said Crawford, the head of the deputy sheriffs’ union, in an interview.

For inmates, however, testing remained elusive.

In late March, the sheriff directed the jail’s medical contractor, Wellpath, to obtain test kits for inmates, but the company couldn’t get enough due to heavy demand, Dunlap said. “Wellpath, like every other provider around this county, couldn’t get them.” So, COVID-19 testing was limited to inmates with symptoms.

By April 30, the jail’s population had dropped to just 834 inmates – about 500 had been released – and only 89 had been tested for the new coronavirus. Of those tested, 29 were positive, just over 30%, according to the sheriff’s office. Among the sheriff’s 810-member staff, 196 had tested positive, or 23% – of whom 89 have returned to work.

On May 7, the jail expanded testing to all inmates under a grant from the Hudson Webber Foundation. That should “further mitigate the spread of the virus” inside and outside the jail, Dunlap said, and help identify infected inmates before release.

As in many states, Michigan’s prison system began universal testing earlier than the jails.

On April 21, Michigan’s Department of Corrections began testing for coronavirus infections in large numbers of inmates even if they showed no sign of illness, said department spokesman Chris Gautz.

Demands for mass testing are growing. The ACLU and the Council of Prison Locals, representing 30,000 federal prison employees, called earlier this month for universal testing in all federal lockups.

But some public health experts are ambivalent on that approach. The CDC’s guidance for correctional facilities calls for quick COVID-19 testing of inmates who appear symptomatic, but it takes no position on universal testing.

The guidance reflects a belief among some public health experts that testing only symptomatic inmates and, in some scenarios, a sample of the rest may suffice for assessing the virus’ overall prevalence in a jail or prison, said Marc Stern, former medical director for the Washington State prison system and a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Testing every asymptomatic inmate may not make sense if a jail lacks the capacity to isolate and trace the contacts of those who test positive – and also because not everyone who tests positive may be contagious.

In Michigan’s prison system, however, officials say mass testing has been valuable.

“If you don’t know where the problem is, you can’t fix it,” spokesman Gautz said.

‘IT’S CRAZY IN THERE’

Charles Peterson, 78, began showing symptoms of COVID-19 a week after a parole violation landed him in Colorado’s Weld County Jail on March 11. By the time he was released on March 30, he was on the verge of dying from it.

Peterson declined quickly, two fellow inmates told Reuters. Coughing and disoriented, they said, he eventually struggled to stand and began losing control of his bladder and bowels.

Donovan Birch said he and other inmates alerted jail staff, but Peterson was left in the general population. Birch also became ill with COVID-19 symptoms after his exposure to Peterson, he said, but never was tested.

Peterson “needed help,” said Birch, who was jailed on a parole violation for trespassing charges. “I knew he was going to die if he didn’t get it.”

Instead, Peterson was released; two days later, he was dead. Official cause: “acute respiratory failure, viral pneumonia and COVID-19 infection.”

Peterson likely was a “superspreader,” according to an infectious disease expert who inspected the jail on behalf of inmates for a lawsuit they filed seeking better sanitary and safety measures. By early May, at least 10 of the jail’s roughly 480 inmates had tested positive for the virus – but just 22 had been tested. Eighteen deputies had also been infected, the jail said.

The inmates’ lawsuit claims Weld County Sheriff Steven Reams “willfully disregarded public health guidelines” by leaving three to four inmates to a cell, sharing sinks and toilets, as the virus spread. “Failing to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 endangers not only those within the institution,” the suit says, “but the entire community.” Reams declined to comment.

The case is among more than 100 lawsuits nationwide, many of them class-action cases, seeking mass releases of inmates or other measures to reduce overcrowding and infection risks in jails hit by the new coronavirus, according to the UCLA law school’s COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project. Many of those cases, as well as hundreds more filed by individual inmates, argue that confinement in facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks violates the U.S. Constitution’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Inmates have been issued masks since early April and have access to soap, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies, said Weld County Sheriff’s spokesman Joe Moylan. He noted the jail has been on lockdown since April 1 – the day Peterson died – and inmates are rotated out of their cells in small groups to common areas that allow for social distancing. He declined to comment on the litigation and the specific cases of Peterson and Birch.

Peterson was released after Colorado’s Department of Corrections decided not to hold him for his parole violation, part of the effort to slow COVID-19 transmission in local jails by reducing inmate populations. Since March 1, the jail has reduced its population by more than 300 inmates; fewer than half its 954 beds are occupied.

Peterson’s parole violation involved failing to renew his sex offender registration while living at “Rock Found,” a re-entry home for convicts returning to the community. When he was let out of jail, a former Rock Found roommate brought him back to the home, cold, shivering, barely able to walk.

The program director called paramedics.

“I honestly could not believe that not a single person from the Weld County Jail had told anyone at Rock Found that they were releasing a seriously sick person into our care,” the director, Cheryl Cook, said in a statement filed in the inmates’ lawsuit.

Moylan, the sheriff’s spokesman, said Peterson was not tested for COVID-19 because he was not overtly symptomatic.

The conditions at the jail violated the constitutional rights of medically vulnerable inmates, a federal judge ruled May 11. He ordered the sheriff to socially distance those at risk, provide single cells when possible, and improve cleaning of communal spaces.

Many of the problems addressed by the judge were identified by the plaintiffs’ expert witness during two visits to the jail in April. He reported to the court that he found most inmates confined to group cells more than 22 hours a day with no handwashing options unless they were let out to a bathroom. Many complained of unsanitary conditions and said shared sinks and toilets were not cleaned between uses, the expert reported.

Ralph Brewer, 41, jailed for violating a restraining order, told Reuters he was directed to continue working in the kitchen after developing nausea and a bad cough. Staffing was short, he was told, so he had to work unless he had a fever.

“It really concerned me. We had no masks, just gloves,” Brewer said. He requested a doctor to check his lungs, he said, but nurses only gave him Tylenol, cough medicine and instructions to stay hydrated.

Brewer was released on April 3 and his daughter took him straight to an urgent care clinic. The doctor said he had COVID-19 symptoms – no tests were available – and told him to quarantine for 14 days, Brewer said. He recovered at his mother’s house.

“I was lucky to get out, but I’m worried about the people still in jail,” Brewer said. “It’s crazy in there.”

(Additional reporting and data analysis by Grant Smith. Peter Eisler, Linda So and Brad Heath reported from Washington. Ned Parker reported from New York. Editing by Jason Szep)

In patchwork restart, parts of New York and other U.S. states reopen

By Doina Chiacu and Nathan Layne

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Less populated areas of New York, Virginia and Maryland took their first steps towards lifting lockdowns on Friday, part of a patchwork approach to the coronavirus pandemic that has been shaped by political divisions across the United States.

Construction and manufacturing facilities in five out of 10 New York state regions were given the green light to restart operations, although New York City, the country’s most populous metropolis, remained under strict limits.

Joe Dundon, whose construction business in Binghamton, New York, was able to start up again after shutting down in March, said he had a long backlog of kitchen and bathroom remodeling projects and several estimates lined up for Friday.

“We are more than excited to get back to work,” he said.

New York state, home to both bustling Manhattan and hilly woods and farmland that stretch to the Canadian border, has been the global epicenter of the pandemic but rural areas have not been nearly as badly affected as New York City.

Statewide, the outbreak is ebbing. Coronavirus hospitalizations in New York declined to 6,394, a third of the level at the peak one month ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday. The number of new coronavirus deaths was 132 on Thursday, the state’s lowest daily total since March 25, he told a news briefing.

Cuomo said New York would join the nearby states of New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware in partially reopening beaches for the Memorial Day holiday weekend on May 23-25.

Pockets of Virginia and Maryland were allowing an array of businesses to reopen, in contrast to the region’s biggest cities – Washington, D.C., and Baltimore – which extended their stay-at-home orders for fear of a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths.

The patchwork approach has largely formed along demographic and political lines. Republican governors have pushed to reopen more quickly to jumpstart the crippled economy, especially in Southern states such as Georgia and Texas which were among the first to allow stores and businesses to reopen.

Democratic governors have been more cautious, especially about big cities, citing concerns for public health from a virus that has killed more than 85,000 Americans.

New York and Virginia are run by Democratic governors while Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, is a moderate Republican in a state that is strongly Democratic.

PANDEMIC DIVISIONS

Political divisions were on display in Wisconsin this week after its Supreme Court invalidated the governor’s stay-at-home order, causing confusion as local leaders responded in various ways across the Midwestern state.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett decided to keep his city’s stay-at-home order in place, although he told Reuters he may relax some guidelines later this month. He said he was concerned there would be outbreaks in surrounding areas that would find their way into his city of nearly 600,000 people.

“By definition a pandemic means that it is everywhere and the spread of the disease does not stop at city boundaries,” Barrett said.

The eagerness to ease restrictions reflects the devastating economic toll of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. More than 36 million Americans have submitted unemployment claims since mid-March, and government data on Friday showed that retail sales plunged 16.4% last month, the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992.

The U.S. House of Representatives cleared the way on Friday to push ahead with a $3 trillion Democratic bill that would double the amount of aid approved by Congress to ease the human and economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

But it lacked support from Republicans, who control the U.S. Senate.

Having staked his Nov. 3 re-election hopes on a strong economy, Republican President Donald Trump has urged states to reopen despite warnings of health experts, including some on his White House task force, that a premature lifting of lockdowns could spark more virus outbreaks.

Trump said on Friday the U.S. government was working with other countries to develop a coronavirus vaccine at an accelerated pace but made clear his view that the country could move on from the epidemic without one.

“Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back,” Trump told an event in the White House Rose Garden.

Trump has also voiced support for protesters, sometimes armed, who have urged states to swiftly reopen their economies.

In Pennsylvania, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the state capitol building in Harrisburg where they waved American and Trump 2020 flags and homemade signs, calling for the governor to fully reopen the state. Motorists including a man dressed as Santa Claus in a red convertible honked their horns in approval as they drove by.

Pennsylvania ranks 12th among U.S. states in COVID-19 cases per capita, according to a Reuters tally.

Thirty of its 67 counties are under a stay-at-home order that allows only essential business and travel to take place until June 4. Businesses are allowed to be open in the other 37 counties but must follow safety orders.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Richard Cowan, Susan Cornwell and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Howard Goller, Cynthia Osterman and Daniel Wallis)

‘Wild, wild West’: Wisconsin reopens for business

By Brendan O’Brien

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. (Reuters) – As a handful of patrons sat at the bar nursing beers and watching a rerun of a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game on a cloudy Thursday afternoon, Junior Useling prepared for what he hoped would be another busy night at the Patio Bar & Grill.

It was just last evening that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the governor does not have the power to impose a statewide coronavirus lockdown, sparking a mix of hope and confusion among struggling business owners across the Midwestern state.

Useling, 71, considers himself one of the lucky ones: Port Washington is part of Ozaukee County, which unlike a half-dozen other counties and cities across Wisconsin has interpreted the court’s decision as an unfettered green light.

“Why would I stay closed? … I got mortgages and bills. My god, if we kept on going we would all be broke,” he told Reuters. “This country is supposed to be free to do what you want.”

The court sided with a legal challenge from Republican lawmakers who argued the state’s top public health official, Andrea Palm, exceeded her authority by imposing a stay-at-home order through May 26.

Not long after the ruling was announced, some beer-loving Wisconsinites rushed to bars for their first taste of freedom in nearly two months, and pictures appeared on social media of maskless crowds of revelers nowhere near 6 feet apart.

The rift over how and when to reopen in Wisconsin reflects its status as a key battleground for the Nov. 3 presidential election, along with neighboring Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Donald Trump won by a hair in 2016.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Palm urged state residents to continue to stay home even if their local leaders said otherwise, warning that relaxed restrictions risked “increasing our cases and deaths.”

Wisconsin had recorded 11,380 coronavirus cases and 433 deaths as of Thursday.

The owner of Remington’s River Inn, Amy Ollman, said she had already made up her mind to reopen before the ruling, a decision endorsed by a patron who shouted “open up America” as she described cleaning tables and chairs for the past two weeks.

“Top to bottom, left to right, we cleaned this entire place,” she said from behind her bar in the village of Thiensville, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Milwaukee and also part of Ozaukee County. “It’s time to get back to normalcy.”

WRESTLING WITH DECISIONS

The court’s decision came as state leaders wrestle with how and when to relax mandatory business closures and other restrictions on social gatherings that have proved successful in slowing the outbreak but have devastated the economy.

Like most of his counterparts, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has had to weigh the interests of cities such as Milwaukee and Madison against less-populated areas that have seen fewer cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Evers’ one-size-fits-all approach rankled Republicans in his state and drew fire from President Donald Trump, who took a swipe at the governor on Twitter on Thursday saying Wisconsin was “bustling” and “people want to get on with their lives.”

But the court’s ruling also triggered confusion as some local leaders in cities such as Milwaukee and Appleton, as well as in Dane, Brown and Kenosha counties, kept their lockdowns in place.

Kristine Hillmer, president of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, sent out guidance on Thursday telling her group’s 7,000 mainly independent eating and drinking establishments to follow local restrictions if they exist.

“The rest of the state they can open 100% however they want,” she said. “It’s a little bit of the Wild Wild West right now.”

Mike Eitel said his phone “blew up” after the court ruling with patrons wanting to know if Milwaukee’s Nomad World Pub and the other establishments he owns would be opening that night. He said it was a clear sign of pent-up demand.

But like other owners, Eitel said he has struggled to buy masks, gloves and other protective equipment for his workers, is faced with rising meat prices and wonders if a bar can even be profitable with strict social distancing rules.

He has also had to straddle two worlds: while the Nomad cannot open its doors until May 26 at the earliest under city rules, the outdoor bar and water sports rental shop he runs in neighboring Waukesha County has been free of any restrictions as of Wednesday night.

“There is massive confusion on what it all means,” Eitel said. “It’s insane.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Port Washington, Wisconsin and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Daniel Wallis)

U.S. employers wary of coronavirus ‘immunity’ tests as they move to reopen

By Caroline Humer and Timothy Aeppel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. employers have cooled to the idea of testing workers for possible immunity to the coronavirus as they prepare to reopen factories and other workplaces.

Blood tests that check for antibodies to the new coronavirus have been touted by governments and some disease experts as a way to identify people who are less likely to fall ill or infect others. Italian automaker Ferrari NV has made antibody testing central to its “Back on Track” project to restarting factories.

But many U.S. companies are not planning to use them, relying on face masks, temperature checks, social distancing, and diagnostic tests for those with symptoms, employers and healthcare experts told Reuters.

Mercer, which advises companies on healthcare benefits, has surveyed more than 700 U.S. employers in industries from high tech to retail to energy, and found 8% of companies said they would include antibody tests in plans to screen employees.

Interest in antibody tests from employers has fallen in recent weeks as reports have suggested that it is too early to conclude that antibodies to the new coronavirus translate into immunity. The American Medical Association cautioned on Thursday that these tests do not determine an individual’s immunity.

“Many employers … are realizing that antibody testing isn’t going to be a silver bullet and really isn’t going to bring them any value,” said David Zieg, a lead consultant on clinical services at Mercer.

Other employers worry about their liability if they administer and interpret such tests, or are concerned about test costs and availability. Some were spooked by a flood of tests that hit the market before being reviewed by regulators for accuracy, which has contributed to confusion over results.

A new antibody test from Roche Holding AG that has shown itself to be highly accurate could potentially help answer questions about antibodies and immunity and change corporate demand, but it has not done so yet, consultants and companies said.

Governments, however, are interested in antibody tests, particularly if they are accurate. Britain on Thursday said it is in talks with Roche over buying tests that it could use to create a certificate of immunity once there is a better understanding of the science.

Collective Health, a healthcare technology company that has built back-to-work strategies for large companies, is advising employers to use diagnostic tests, not antibody tests.

“There has been a proliferation of low-quality antibody tests and the antibody tests themselves don’t necessarily answer any questions about immunity,” said Rajaie Batniji, Collective Health’s chief health officer.

GETTING BACK TO WORK

When General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV reopen production next week, they intend to offer diagnostic tests to workers, not antibody tests. Officials at the Detroit carmakers said it was because it was not clear what the antibody tests show.

Amazon.com Inc’s on-site testing plan, now in development, does not include antibody testing. Those views were echoed in interviews with a handful of smaller U.S. manufacturers.

Shawn Kitchell, chief executive of Florida-based plastics manufacturer Madico Inc, is not planning to use antibody tests for his 250 employees. He questions their costs, accuracy, and the fact that the timing of tests can lead to different results, requiring multiple tries.

“How frequently would we need to test to make it safer for our co-workers?” Kitchell said.

Employers are also wary of an unregulated U.S. market for antibody tests. Since March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed more than 200 tests into the market without regulatory review to make them available quickly, opening the door to questionable vendors and inaccurate tests, Reuters found.

Last week, the agency set a deadline for all vendors to prove to the FDA that their tests work or remove them from the market. It has also authorized two highly-accurate tests from Roche and Abbott Laboratories, which are able to supply millions of tests per week.

One of the biggest U.S. testing providers, LabCorp, on Thursday said it was rolling out a program to make diagnostic tests and antibody tests available at workplaces.

LabCorp’s chief medical officer, Brian Caveney, said interest in antibody testing is coming from companies in coronavirus hotspots, such as New York, while other areas with fewer COVID-19 cases see diagnostic testing as more important.

As the new FDA process shows which tests work and which don’t, that will help advance research on how many people recovering from COVID-19 develop antibodies and at what level, and show if they are truly immune to infection, said Howard Koh, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Until we go through those steps, I don’t see how we can translate this for the typical person who wants to go back to work,” Koh said.

(This story has been refiled to change spelling to Zieg from Zeig in paragraph six)

(Reporting by Caroline Humer, Timothy Aeppel and Krystal Hu in New York and Ben Klayman in Detroit; editing by Michele Gershberg and Nick Zieminski)

Hundreds protest Michigan stay-at-home order

By Michael Martina and Seth Herald

DETROIT/LANSING, Mich. (Reuters) – Hundreds gathered to protest Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order on Thursday in Lansing, the third but smallest major demonstration at the state’s Capitol since businesses were shuttered in March due to the coronavirus.

Whitmer recently extended Michigan’s stay-at-home order – one of the strictest in the United States – until at least May 28 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes, COVID-19.

The protest was organized by Michigan United for Liberty, which says it is a nonprofit with nearly 8,000 members that views the order as unconstitutional.

About 150 protesters gathered in light rain around 9 a.m. near the steps of the Capitol building, but the crowd grew to several hundred by mid-morning, some carrying signs in support of President Donald Trump. A handful had firearms, including long guns.

“Open your business now. Open the restaurants. Open the bars. Open the movie theaters,” one protester, who did not announce his name, told the crowd. “Michigan, wake up America.”

Michigan State Police quickly responded to a small scuffle but said there were no injuries and the site was secure. Speakers had packed up the audio system before 11 a.m., as rain intensified.

The Capitol building was closed because the legislature had been adjourned.

Debate over how and when to ease restrictions on commerce and social life has grown increasingly politicized in the United States, with Trump and his supporters agitating to loosen social-distancing measures more swiftly than medical experts deem prudent.

Democratic governors of states hardest hit by the outbreak have taken a more cautious stance, abiding by public health officials – and guidelines from the White House itself – warning that vastly expanded coronavirus testing and other safeguards be put in place first.

Hundreds of protesters, some armed, gathered at the same site in Lansing on April 30 to protest against Whitmer’s request to the state legislature to extend emergency powers to combat COVID-19.

That rally saw large groups of protesters enter the Capitol building and demand to be let onto the House floor, which is prohibited. Some protesters with guns — which are allowed in the statehouse — went to the Senate gallery.

The Republican-led state legislature has declined to outlaw weapons inside the Capitol building, something Democratic governor Whitmer lamented in an interview on CNN on Wednesday.

“No one should have to go to work and feel intimidated,” she said. “Making the Capitol a gun-free zone is important in making people feel they can do their job safely.”

Authorities had told protesters to expect a heavy police presence at Thursday’s protest, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned in advance that she was prepared to prosecute potential violations, including brandishing of weapons and trespassing into the legislative chambers.

“I vehemently support the First Amendment right to protest government actions at the Capitol or elsewhere around the state; however any such activity must be done in a manner that is safe and lawful,” she wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

Michigan had the fourth highest death toll from COVID-19 in the United States as of Thursday, at 4,714 dead among its 48,391 confirmed cases.

(Reporting by Michael Martina in Detroit and Seth Herald in Lansing; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

U.S. jobless claims remain elevated amid second layoffs wave

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The novel coronavirus crisis continues to pummel the U.S. labor market, with the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits falling less than expected last week, suggesting a second wave of layoffs in industries and jobs not initially impacted by business closures caused by the pandemic.

The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, supports economists’ contention that it would take a while for activity to rebound after almost grounding to a halt in mid-March as authorities tried to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned of an “extended period” of weak growth and stagnant incomes. Though many parts of the country are reopening, businesses and factories are operating well below capacity. More states and local governments are laying out plans to restart their economies.

“The U.S. labor market remains under tremendous pressure, although the pace of job losses is at least slowing,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “The key question is how quickly businesses will rehire workers in the weeks ahead as restrictions on movement are gradually lifted.”

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 2.981 million for the week ended May 9, the Labor Department said on Thursday. While that was down from 3.176 million in the prior week and marked the sixth straight weekly drop, claims remain astoundingly high.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast applications for unemployment benefits totaling 2.5 million in the latest week. Claims have been gradually decreasing since hitting a record 6.867 million in the week ended March 28.

U.S. stocks opened lower as investors grappled with the possibility of prolonged economic weakness due to the coronavirus pandemic. The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices rose.

MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED

The latest numbers lifted to 36.5 million the number of people who have filed claims for unemployment benefits since mid-March, or more than one in five workers losing their job.

Economists said weak demand is causing layoffs of workers in industries and jobs not initially affected by the coronavirus shutdowns. They also attributed the continued elevation in claims to the processing of application backlogs, which accumulated as state unemployment offices were overwhelmed by the unprecedented wave of applications.

The economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While there are no signs yet that the reopening of businesses will ease unemployment, there is cautious hope that April was probably the trough for job losses during this economic downturn, which has also been marked by the sharpest decline in output since the 2007-09 Great Recession.

Some businesses have accessed loans from an almost $3 trillion fiscal package, which could be partially forgiven if they used the credit for employee salaries. But many small enterprises are expected to close permanently, leaving some of the 21.4 million people who lost their jobs in March and April out of work for a long time.

Thursday’s claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 456,000 to a record 22.833 million for the week ending May 2. The so-called continuing claims data is reported with a one-week lag and will be closely watched in the coming months to get a better sense of the depth of the labor market downturn.

“Jobless claims pour cold water on the V-shaped recovery talk,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “Economic growth might get a boost from pent-up demand, but the labor markets have dug themselves a deeper hole that will be harder to climb back out of.”

The Labor Department also reported that 3.4 million people had their applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) processed in the week ending April 25. The PUA program covers gig workers and many others who do not qualify for regular insurance unemployment but have been forced out of work because of COVID-19.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)

Restaurants in parts of California can open for sit-down dining

By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – Restaurants in a half-dozen California counties can host sit-down dining, and shopping malls throughout the state can open for curbside pickup as coronavirus restrictions ease, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday.

Offices can also open with some restrictions, Newsom, a Democrat, said in his daily press briefing. But his latest plan for reopening the world’s fifth-largest economy still does not allow nail salons, tattoo parlors or gyms.

“It’s a mistake to over-promise what reopening means,” said Newsom, who has hesitated to loosen restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus even as other states have done so.

On Tuesday, leading U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned Congress that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks of the deadly coronavirus, which has killed more than 80,000 people in the United States and brought the economy to its knees.

In California, the modest loosening of stay-at-home rules imposed in March comes as infections in the most-populous U.S. state appear to be stabilizing. But the state allows local governments to keep imposing stricter guidelines, and health officials in high-density areas like Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area have not yet supported easing restrictions.

Similarly, counties with few or stabilized cases can apply to the state for permission to open more businesses, including restaurants serving sit-down meals, and allow customers inside shopping malls, retail stores and swap meets. Schools can open with modifications.

Six Northern California counties, Butte, El Dorado, Lassen, Nevada, Placer and Shasta, received that permission on Tuesday.

To reopen, restaurants must retool their dining rooms to accommodate social distancing, closing areas where customers congregate or touch food, and stop setting tables with shared condiments such as mustard containers. Menus must be disposable and table-side food preparation is no longer allowed.

California’s slow pace of reopening has been criticized by lawmakers in Republican-leaning rural parts of the state, and a conservative lawyer filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the state’s restrictions on beauty salons.

Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco-based attorney and the former vice chair of the California Republican Party, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Professional Beauty Federation of California in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.

She has also challenged Newsom’s order closing houses of worship, saying that while she supported the initial efforts to slow the virus’ transmission, the shutdown had gone on for too long.

“The premise was never lock everybody down, deprive them of their livelihoods, their properties, their dreams, everything they built,” she said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney and Richard Pullin)

U.S. accuses China-linked hackers of stealing coronavirus research

By Raphael Satter

(Reuters) – China-linked hackers are breaking into American organizations carrying out research into COVID-19, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, warning both scientists and public health officials to be on the lookout for cyber theft.

In a joint statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security said the FBI was investigating digital break-ins at U.S. organizations by China-linked “cyber actors” that it had monitored “attempting to identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property (IP) and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with COVID-19-related research.”

The statement offered no further details on the identities of the targets or the hackers.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China routinely denies longstanding American allegations of cyberespionage.

Coronavirus-related research and data have emerged as a key intelligence priority for hackers of all stripes. Last week Reuters reported that Iran-linked cyberspies had targeted staff at U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc., whose antiviral drug remdesivir is the only treatment so far proven to help COVID-19 patients.

In March and April, Reuters reported on advanced hackers’ attempts to break into the World Health Organization as the pandemic spread across the globe.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Howard Goller)